Dr. Noel Manyindo is a public health physician, health equity strategist, racial equity and social justice advocate, educator and leader with over two decades of experience in population and community health and a passion for advancing health equity. 

In his prior role as associate professor and chair of the Department of Community Health and Social Medicine at City University of New York School of Medicine, he spearheaded population health, health systems, epidemiology, health policy and health management courses and co-led the population health curriculum review process in support of Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) accreditation. He used collaborative quality improvement and implementation approaches to increase department productivity and improve efficiency, resulting in substantial increases in departmental research funding, publications and academic-community engagement and partnerships.   

Prior to his work in academia, Dr. Manyindo served as assistant commissioner of the Bureau of Neighborhood Health in the Center for Health Equity and Community Wellness at the NYC Department of Health. In this role he developed and implemented strategic approaches to advance overall population health and wellbeing using a racial equity and social determinants lens while fostering collaboration between public health, healthcare delivery, social services and the local community/neighborhood. He also served as deputy equity officer for the COVID-19 emergency response and led the formation and implementation of COVID-19 Neighborhood Response Teams in the hardest hit neighborhoods already experiencing the impact of racist and discriminatory policies and practices including redlining and disinvestment.  

At the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Dr. Manyindo also served as assistant commissioner of the Bureau of Systems Strengthening and Access in the Division of Mental Hygiene. He led a team of over 100 behavioral health staff, researchers, policy experts and community engagement experts in conducting several high priority initiatives valued at over $180 million, including the launch of 10 citywide community-based mental health initiatives. His bureau also led the Regional Planning Consortium that brought together key mental health stakeholders from the state, city, insurers, hospital systems, community providers and others. 

Before joining the NYC Health Department, he served as the senior director of Community Health and Wellness at the National Urban League – a leading and historic national civil rights organization – where he spearheaded national health programming and policy efforts throughout 94 cities and 36 states, with programming serving over 6 million African Americans and other communities of color. This work led to recognitions from the Obama Administration and the Congressional Black Caucus, among others. 

Prior to working at the National Urban League, Dr. Manyindo served as a technical advisor/subject matter expert for the federally funded Refugee Health Technical Assistance Center at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. He spearheaded multi-state efforts around the successful messaging and implementation of refugee/immigrant health and other provisions in the Affordable Care Act. 

Dr. Manyindo has served on advisory committees addressing health equity and various disparities for the federal government, the Congressional Black Caucus, the Obama Administration, the City of New York, American Hospital Association and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. He has served on a number of community coalitions, including the Greater Harlem Health Committee, the steering committee for NYC Citywide High Blood Pressure Coalition, and is a facilitator with the East Harlem Behavioral Health Collaborative. He was also a member of the NYC Crisis Prevention and Response Task Force and NYC Behavioral Health Workforce taskforce. He has received recognitions for his leadership and organizing efforts.  

He received a national research award for NIH grant-funded mental health research focused on depression and diabetes in African Americans. Additionally, he has published many manuscripts and has been a guest speaker and lecturer in the areas of health equity, place-based approaches, the social determinants of health and structural racism. 

Dr. Manyindo’s additional areas of expertise and interest include population health, community-based behavioral health, and maternal and child health.  

Dr. Manyindo has a Doctor of Medicine degree from the Howard University College of Medicine, a Master of Business Administration from the Howard University School of Business in Washington, DC, and a Master of Public Health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. He graduated magna cum laude with an undergraduate degree in biology from Howard University. His residency training was in Family Medicine and Community Health at the Howard University Hospital in Washington, DC.